"What? Maeve is captured?!" Jin looked up when he heard the announcement from the System and was genuinely surprised. He was thankful that the Mass Migration Operation was proceeding rather smoothly despite the appearance of Father Porkcupine and the news of Maeve being captured could not have been any better. It was totally out of his expectation.
Also, the timing of Pepper's explosion was nearly impeccable as the penguin ninjas and Orcs managed to clear the 'migration' queue by requesting multiple portals. They hope to rush the crowd in before the advent of the inevitable.
The System naturally granted this one time privilege which quickened the queue but also brought in some unexpected visitors into the Island they were evacuating into.
Needless to say, the Orcs who accompanied the rescue proved to be a positive distraction against those other Porkcupines. (They loved the meat so much from the Xmas Feast that they hoped by killing these live Giant boars by themselves, will eventually earn them the right to eat them once more.)
Meanwhile, Peppers' pride was hurt when she found out that Father Porkcupine did not go down with her latest iteration of explosion spell. It was still standing and even attempted to retaliate but it did not know where it came from…until it sniffed out a faint, similar magical source from above.
Peppers could have escaped detection if she did not try to fire another blast at Father Porkcupine. However, the experimental vest broke as Ayse had expected and did not allow Peppers to release another spell on her own. Instead, she grabbed all the crystals that were charged up from her worn out machines and threw them in her storage ring before she shouted at the System and Jin.
"Teleport Peppers and me back to base! Any more magic and you will have an incapacitated mage for the next month or so!" Ayse warned her master about the consequences of letting his Bellator running too rampant.
"Right away." Jin acknowledged his minion's request and the System immediately zapped them back to Ayse's laboratory instance. Peppers screamed in defiance and wanted to finish the job, but Ayse was holding the battered girl back as much as she can.
"To all Lab members! Code Green!" Ayse cried out loud for help via the System's Lab Channel and immediately, her Elven researchers along with Weslie came to the main hall of the laboratory all armed with magic. Until they realised that it was not just a Code Green, its a Code Green, Peppers Version!
They quickly used their magic to bind, seal and whatever possible methods they could think of to keep Peppers from releasing her magic spell on the spot. They remembered the lab instance was nearly blown away because Peppers became too agitated arguing with Ayse. But thankfully the System was aware of it and teleported Peppers away in time before any serious damage was done to the lab instance.(Talk about violent reactions!)
"Sorry, sweetie. This will hurt a bit." Weslie quickly placed an injector gun on Peppers' neck and fired a sedative that caused the Mage Bellator to lose her consciousness momentarily. After which, they put her in a trolley as the other Elven Researchers brought her to the medical lab for close observation.
"This is why I do not want kids," Ayse said as she lied on the pristine clean floor of her lab hall while taking a breather.
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Even though the smell of the particular magical signature suddenly disappeared, Father Porkcupine did not stop its retaliation towards the floating platform. It thought that the culprit who did a number on him was still hiding up there. Noticing that all of the Colossal Porkcupine had spikes aimed towards the floating platform, Que Er realised Mr Derpy could be in danger and immediately stomped at him.
"Evade Dagen! Evade! Hard Left!" Que Er sent a mind electrifying pulse of magic into the sleeping floating platform, forcing him to wake up and perform the instruction as ordered by the Magpie Queen.
"Woah! What is happening?!" Mr Derpy's sudden movement made the machines fell off his back and thought he also dropped Peppers and Ayse along with it.
"Do not worry, the two had already returned to base. Peppers tried to kill the pig down there, but even her spell was not strong enough to penetrate his thick skin." Que Er held on to Muginn's leg without much effort and explained the situation to Mr Derpy.
"That is why it tried to kill me after finding out where the source of magic came from?" Mr Derpy asked for a confirmation which Que Er nodded.
"Well, he started the fight first." The Shadow Dagen unknowingly gave his creepy smile as he looked at the prey staring at him. "I guess I better finish what Peppers had started -"
"All units, prepare to teleport back! The operation is a success! I repeat, all units, prepare to teleport back!" Jin sent a system wide message which basically prevented Mr Derpy from doing any further actions. (Jin did not honestly it think it would be a running gag.)
"I do not care already! So be it if there is no lunch buffet due to my insubordination!" Mr Derpy shouted as he flew higher a little more before diving straight towards Father Porkcupine. At that point, Que Er saw that the spikes on the pig's back started to merge into one big spike.
It was as if, the Porkcupine was going for a one shot kill against the diving impact of Mr Derpy. "Master, I think you better manually teleport Mr Derpy or else his death may lead to unnecessary wastage of resources which-"
And before the Magpie Queen could finish her sentence, Mr Derpy was already teleported back into his instance. But the Queen realised that Father Porkcupine was still looking upwards, and only found out that the spike was subsequently diverted to aim at her.
"No shit. This pig is cleverer than it portrays itself to be." Que Er whispered as she waited for the moment the spike flew out of his back like a rocket before she teleported away.
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"Ah ah, and here I thought I get to unleash my powers a little bit more." Frost Echo said as he did not know whether to breath a sigh of relief hearing that retreat order.
"But technically, the raid is still on, right?" Flame Ripper asked as he looked at the distraught Queen of Winter Court. "You think its best to let her go just like that?"
"You are saying, it's better we die fighting?" Frost Echo questioned, but he saw the Dark Elves already jumping out of the windows the moment Jin sent the retreat order out.
"Well, we still need to know the extent of our Shaitan powers to get stronger." Flame Ripper said as Queen Mab slowly turned to them with a different expression on her face.
The 'I will hunt you where ever you go' kind of face.
"Heh, at most we get some scolding from Boss and maybe some isolation time? Nah scratch that, he probably made us work harder. That's all." Frost Echo said as he leaned his neck sidewards to release a popping sound from his bones. "Besides, I am still a King. Got to keep my pride up once in a while."
"Hahah! I guess it's okay for us to fool around a little..." Flame Ripper said as he held onto his dagger as if it glimmered with desire. The desire to be set free and roam around the world a little to wreak some havoc. Flame Ripper took a deep breath in and shouted out the very words that had been itching to come out of his mouth for the longest time.
"Command my body! Ifrit!" The Dagger Goblin held his dagger up high, and the glittering of light from the dagger turned into a spark of fire which quickly enveloped Flame Ripper.
"What?!" Queen Mab had never seen such intense fire magic in her life.
"Heh heh! Shiva, do you wish to be outmatched by your brother?" Frost Echo said as he raised his fist upwards and shouted the very same request beseeching his other Master to take over his body.
"Command my body! Shiva!" Frost Echo said as he held his fist near his face as he slowly transformed with a barrier of ice around him.